This could potentially be quite big for Ubuntu and Linux in general. Canonical and the Chinese government have announced a collaboration to build a version of Ubuntu specifically for the Chinese market, which will become the reference architecture for standard operating systems in the country.

I live in Taiwan, and this development gives me some hope that Linux can be revived here. We wouldn't be able to use the exact same system as mainland China because they use simplified characters and we stick the traditional ones (as does Hong Kong, by the way). But translating menus into traditional characters is very easy, it can even be done by machine.

About 10 years ago the Taiwanese government made some noises about going with Linux, even opened a few Linux training classes in the universities, and there was a Chinese-language "Linux Magazine." Then suddenly - nothing. Whatever the reason, Linux has been so thoroughly eradicated from Taiwan that most young people here have never even heard of it. If you buy a computer here from a big chain store and say you don't want Windows, they'll sell you one with FreeDos pre-installed, but not Linux. It's as if Microsoft called up the president and demanded they kill Linux or else Taiwan-made computers would be banned from the USA.

This could all change if China gives Ubuntu a big push. Even though politically we aren't really part of China (not yet, anyway), we are very influenced by it.